kayb

Great travelogue, Kim. And as for on-line friends -- I have a group I met through another forum whom I've formed close friendships with over an almost 20-year span (dating back to the days of AOL dial-up and 20 hours per month at 19.95...!); we get together every so often, coming from all over the country, to spend a weekend together somewhere, and I've visited in many of their homes as well as they in mine. It's a wonderful thing. Not tremendously familiar with the cuisine in Indy, but I do love St. Elmo's steakhouse. And an Indiana pork tenderloin sandwich is a thing of beauty. In fact, I have some pork loin chops in the freezer. I could pound those thin......

liuzhou, that's a lovely burger. I'm fond of mine with caramelized onions and blue cheese on top. liamsaunt, mm, and chefmd, those are some most appetizing-looking fish dishes. I find myself cooking a lot of tilapia in the summer; it's a light entree in a lemon-butter sauce, and the filets cook so quickly they don't heat up the kitchen.

Not overly hungry, and it's the first HOT weather of the summer, so I opted for cold stuff. Homemade corn and black bean salsa and chips, with some grated Monterey Jack cheese added to the salsa. And, since I'd seen several posts about sliced radishes on buttered toast or crispbread, and I had all the above, I decided I should try that. The taste of radishes next to butter is a revelation. My crispbread is seed-encrusted, and tends to overpower the butter and radish; I have some water crackers I will try tomorrow. I also have some blue cheese butter, which I did not use because it was in the fridge and way too cold, but I'll bring that out to get room temp and try it, per Anna's breakfast the other morning. Radishes and butter. Who'd'a thunk it?

Seconded re: Kaiserschmarm!

TFTC, I bread my own okra because I always find the pre-breaded to be too heavy. I rinse the okra off and cut it up while it's wet, then put it in a bowl and leave it on the counter for 15-20 minutes to let the "slime" ooze out. Transfer it to a plastic bag, dump in some cornmeal mix (half and half corn and flour), salt and pepper, and shake it until it's coated. Then fry it in medium hot oil, about 1/4 inch deep. That's what's always worked best to me. Mama used to use those brown paper lunch bags to shake it up, but I never have those around. I've found the breading isn't bad to fall off IF (1) I have the oil plenty hot; (2) I don't crowd the okra too much in the skillet, and (3) I leave it along after I put it in for several minutes. I try to stir/turn mine only once while it's cooking. This was exceptionally good okra; most of the pods were 2-3 inches long, but even the few longer ones were not tough at all. The corn, however, WAS a bit on the tough side, and not as sweet as I'd expected; as if it had been picked several days ago, which disappointed me.

Summer for dinner. Fried okra, creamed sweet corn, green peas, sliced tomatoes. The pork loin chop came from a 15-pound loin I bought at the butcher the other day, and broke down yesterday into a big roast which I'll sous vide and then grill for the Fourth of July, and 10 packages of two inch-thick chopes each. Sous vided the chops for 2 hours at 125F, allowed to cool to room temp, then seared in a hot skillet. Didn't eat all the pork chop. Went back for seconds on corn and okra.

Makes me smile to remember that one. I still know all the words. Used to sing my kids to sleep with it.

I did. They're shelled and in the fridge. Not as sweet, raw, as I had expected/hoped, so I think I'm going to briefly steam them and then toss them with butter.These, according to the farmer I got them from, were snow peas he'd allowed to grow larger; don't know that I've ever heard of that. They look like a sugar snap but don't taste like it. I wish I could find the old-fashioned, long-pod "English peas," as I grew up calling them. Haven't seen them at a market anywhere. A little later in the summer, there will be what I've heard called "ladypeas," a small, cream-colored pea that tastes something like a crowder, but milder. Love those as well. And then it'll be the crowders and purple-hulls. I am presently delighted because I've found a semi-local grower (an hour or so away) who raises Silver Queen corn, a white sweet corn that is the best, in my opinion, in the world. I've ordered 10 dozen ears, which I'll cut off, cook briefly (longer than blanching), and freeze. Can't wait. Should be ready next week or the next.

All sorts of goodies at the market this morning! First okra of the year, first sweet corn of the year. Both will be for dinner Sunday. Green peas! I was so excited I bought two baskets. Some will be steamed with butter, some blanched,shocked, and used in salads, some eaten out of hand. A small green cabbage and a small red cabbage; time for slaw. Lots of tomatoes. Lots of green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, new potatoes. Gorgeous carrots. Radishes. Peaches, blueberries,blackberries (I didn't get any because I'm going to the you-pick place tomorrow), raspberries. Peppers, as I've taken the notion to make some salsa. I love this time of year.

Carryout fundraiser dinner was forgettable (but for a good cause, so that's OK). Dessert, however, was sublime. It is blackberry season in Arkansas, and there is NO better pie than blackberry cobbler. I ate very nearly a quarter of this one, with Yarnell's French vanilla ice cream (another Arkansas product).

Took a page from Anna's book and tried my hand at creamed tomatoes. Used the recipe link she posted, but when it came time to grate cheese to sprinkle on top,I thought, well, a cheese sauce would be nice. And the cream sauce became a cheese sauce. Two things I'd do differently. I'd pre-roast my tomatoes; a matter of personal preference, I like mine more done. And I'd cut the bread really thin, and toast it darker, to play up the crunchy element. But the taste was excellent, particularly when accompanied by sausage, scrambled egg and a blueberry muffin.

TFTC, didn't know you'd lived in Memphis. I lived across the river from it for 30 years. I remember picking the early October green tomatoes, too; we put them on windowsills to ripe. Every window in the house would be bedecked with tomatoes. Mama would also make green tomato relish. A friend told me she has successfully canned green tomatoes by slicing them, stacking in a wide mouth jar, adding salt and then boiling water. The jar is capped and processed in a water bath for 20 minutes; it then has to be moved Very Carefully (lest the hot tomato disintegrate) to a location where it can sit undisturbed for two or three days. I guess it sort of re-forms itself or something. She says it's not as good as the real thing, but not bad.

ThanksfortheCrepes -- Take care of yourself! You have, I trust, been to the doctor? Shelby -- Don't buy any lottery tickets. Best lay off playing the ponies until your luck changes, too. Picking up carryout tonight -- the local Hispanic Services Center, for which I do some occasional work, is having a fundraiser. Massive pork steaks, beans and cole slaw. It's what's for dinner.

For me, home-canned and home-frozen food is simply better than what I can get at the grocery store freezer case, canned aisles or produce section during the off season. Particularly tomatoes. There's a million dollars worth of difference in home-canned tomatoes and San Marzanos, or any other top-rated brand. Plus, it makes me feel and remember the connection with my mother, who's been gone these past 20 years. And the generations before her for whom "puttin' up" was a necessity, not an option.

That's possible. Or the combination. The original photo I saw used country style ribs, the boneless cuts that look more like strips of loin. I may try that next time, or try just not cooking the tenderloin at all first. I was particularly pleased with the flavor combo of the bacon and pineapple; it was marvelous. Sam's has whole pineapples, cored and cut into spears lengthwise, as opposed to slices; I'm thinking those, wrapped in bacon, would be a marvelous grilled accompaniment to, well, most anything. My other favorite grilled fruit is peach halves with blue cheese and balsamic reduction.Grill the cut side of the peach first, turn it over and fill the pit cavity with blue cheese, scattering some over the cut surface, while the other side grills. Remove from grill and drizzle with balsamic reduction.

That's possible. Or the combination. The original photo I saw used country style ribs, the boneless cuts that look more like strips of loin. I may try that next time, or try just not cooking the tenderloin at all first. I was particularly pleased with the flavor combo of the bacon and pineapple; it was marvelous. Sam's has whole pineapples, cored and cut into spears lengthwise, as opposed to slices; I'm thinking those, wrapped in bacon, would be a marvelous grilled accompaniment to, well, most anything. My other favorite grilled fruit is peach halves with blue cheese and balsamic reduction.Grill the cut side of the peach first, turn it over and fill the pit cavity with blue cheese, scattering some over the cut surface, while the other side grills. Remove from grill and drizzle with balsamic reduction.

Someoneone on the dinner thread recently -- was it you? -- posted some baby zucchini, blossoms still attached, the entire thing battered and fried. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. I'm going to plant zucchini next year just to be able to try that.

I grew up on a small farm in the South, where we raised almost everything we ate, and summers were made for canning and preserving vegetables and fruit from the garden and orchard. We also raised pigs and cattle -- not a big operation, really just a couple of animals a year for our own use. About all we bought at the grocery were basics -- flour, sugar, coffee, some cereals -- and for some reason, bread (Mama was not a bread-baker other than on special occasions), so I grew up "puttin' up." Then I grew up and moved to the city and stopped. A couple of years ago, 40-plus years removed from the canning and preserving of my youth, I ventured into canning some jams and jellies, brought on mostly because I'd come by a surfeit of ripe figs, and I couldn't stand to see them go to waste -- so I made fig jam. Not too long after that, I was visiting "up home" and noted the pear tree was bearing fruit on only two branches -- so I picked up windfall pears, took them home, and made pear preserves. Last year, I widened the scope to apple butter and pear butter, and also canned green beans, several bushels of tomatoes (ripe tomato chow-chow, marinara sauce, chili base, and just plain tomatoes), and I froze several pints of corn as well as field peas. This year, it's going to be blackberries, more corn, more peas more green beans, more tomatoes, some peaches. I probably have enough pears to last the rest of my natural life. I'd love to get into dehydrating and freeze-drying. I'm limited on freezer space (I have a small chest freezer, but I generally fill it with a bulk beef purchase from a local farmer every fall). And I've always wanted to try charcuterie. It's on the list....

Well, I forgot this one, because it was last Saturday. Sous vide pork tenderloin, originally stuffed inside a whole pineapple, which had to be cut down the side to accommmodate it, then wrapped in bacon. It split during the early portion of the cooking, so grill-side surgery resulted in halves. Very good, but for the fact I'd cooked the tenderloin too long SV (90 minutes at 125) and it got mushy. I'll do better next time. The tenderloin had Cajun seasoning, and the bacon melted nicely into the pineapple. Served with sweet corn, roasted in the husk on the grill, and sauteed fresh green beans with ginger and soy sauce.

Norm, I consider myself an aficionado of pulled pork, having lived in Memphis and its environs for 30-plus years. Your pork is tee-totally gorgeous. AnnT, I could dine on an antipasto spread every evening for a LONG time with no complaints. huiray, I love the notion of the peas with the wurst and kraut. I love browning mine a tad, as well. Try browning in bacon grease. Been out of town for three days. Nothing exceptional in the meals department. Will cook this weekend.

Okanagancook, try doing those zucchini fritters with cracker crumbs (my fam prefers plain Saltine crackers for the crumbs) with eggs and a splash of milk.

Nice 'shrooms, huiray! I TRIED to buy light this week, as I'm out of town tomorrow through Wednesday, but.... Blackberries, blueberries, squash, eggs, eggplant, tomatoes, new potatoes, kettle corn, early peaches. Peaches need to ripen and should be about ready when I get back. Eggplant and squash and potatoes should keep just fine.

radtek, I put mine in the freezer for about 45 minutes first. Grates passably well. But you're right, the sauce does fine.

Porterhouse, sous vide for an hour at 125F, cooled to room temp, and then seared on a hot grill and finished with blue cheese butter. Served with hasselback potato, the last of the asparagus with Hollandaise, a caprese, and red zinfandel.

I suspect you'd eat it all before it went bad! You can also cut the recipe in half, if you want a smaller batch. A lot of people pass on the cream cheese/Velveeta entirely, and just go with Cheddar, but I like the creaminess.